Hey,
<> I seem to recall, years ago, that Grummon tried to intice the air force into buying F-14’s. This included marking an airframe with the appropriate markings.
<> Can anyone help me locate a photo or two of that plane? Any additional information will be greatly appreciated.
<>Happy modeling,
<> Mateo
<>
I think if you just use your imagination to create this as a what-if you’ll be in the ball park. The USAF never considered the F-14 because of its high operating costs.
I found this.
To fly an F-14 took 50 maintenence hours for every hour of flight versus the F-18E/F’s 5-10/1. Check this linky for more info.
Reading your message I seem to recall reading the USAF was infact intrested in the F-14.
I found these articles on the subject. The second has a photo of a mock-up.
http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/f14_10.html
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=423.msg24927;topicseen
However most likely if it entered service its markings and paint scheme would match what was used on early F-15’s since a similar role and era. I have been intrested in modeling the 3-engined A-5 Vigilante interceptor that was North Americans contender for the Improved Manned Inceptor (IMI) program.
Fixed! [;)]
Hawkeye,
Just to clarify, the statistic you quote of 60 hrs/flight hour was at the end of the Tomcat’s career, when the jets were old. In fact, the numbers you quote were one of the reasons the Tomcat was retired. That figure does not represent the maintainence hours over the lifetime of the aircraft.
Also, if you think the maintenance manhours for the F-18E/F are that low think again, there more like 20-25 and slowly climbing due to several “issues” with the aircraft.[;)]
Reddog
Just using the information released by the US Navy…we know they’d never stretch the facts.[;)]